MEN OF MARS

Though he is best known as the creator of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) began his writing career in 1911 with a tale called "Dejah Thoris, Martian Princess." Thus his 11-book Barsoom series, featuring John Carter, Warlord of Mars, was born. With this exclusive omnibus, the third in our series, the SFBC gathers three more of these classic tales, adventures set on a brutal world where fierce green warriors roam the dead sea bottom and red men rule a civilization of decaying splendor.A Fighting Man of Mars: When a nobleman's daughter is abducted at the point of a gun that can disintegrate metal, it portends great danger for the empire of Helium. To rescue the woman he lovesand locate the source of the gun, Hadron of Hastor must run the gauntlet of giant Martians, man-eating apes and a xenophobic city where he is sentenced to "The Death"-a place of roiling horror that will carry him to the weapon's mad inventor...and a surprising twist of fate.Swords of Mars: John Carter hires on as bodyguard to Fal Sivas, a scientist who steals ideas from other inventors and then has them killed. Sivas' greatest invention-a spaceship run by a mechanical brain-comes in handy when Carter's wife, Dejah Thoris, is taken hostage on a moon of Mars. There, inside a castle built of precious gems, the Carters' fates may be sealed...unless they can foil invisible foes, cannibalistic cat-men and a powerful guild of assassins.Synthetic Men of Mars: In a vat on an island in the Toonolian Marshes, a grand experiment has gone awry. Ras Thavas, the Master Mind of Mars, has learned the secret of growing humans from a single cell, but now these invulnerable warriors have taken control and cloned anarmy to conquer the world. As John Carter and young warrior Vor Daj discover, the only thing worse than a monster that cannot die is a giant writhing mass of them-a grotesque mutation that will grow to consume everything in its path. Jacket art by Michael Whelan.